A New Calling
by Ceilidh26
Summary: When River discovers another secret buried in her mind, it is up to the crew of the Serenity to expose it. Includes Mal and Simon being idiots, Wash being alive, Kaylee being sweet, and Jayne being... intelligent?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything. If I did, Wash would't have died.**

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 _Chapter 1_

Her limbs flailed as if fighting off invisible attackers. Simon crouched on the ground before his sister. The mercenary stood behind them trying to hide his concern for the crazy girl who had somehow crept into his heart. Simon spared a glance at Jayne.

"This is how you found her?" he asked. The bigger man nodded.

"I came into th' kitchen to clean my girls an' she was settin' on th' table an' ramblin' all crazy-like," he grunted. To himself, he muttered, "I was tryin' to make out what t'was she were sayin' when you came in." At that moment, River rolled off the table and crawled under it to hide amongst the chairs. Jayne's keen ears barely heard her incoherently mumbling around a hand now firmly pressed to her mouth.

"River," Simon said cautiously as he pried her hand away, "River, what's going on? You haven't had an episode in so long, Mei-mei." With the hand finally removed, Jayne could make out what she was repeating.

"Flying or sinking, she doesn't know, she doesn't know." Simon looked to the merc. for help.

"Do you have any idea?" He asked desperately.

Jayne shrugged, "she'd been mutterin' 'bout bein' a princess." River's snapped toward the big man so fast, Simon flinched.

"She is a princess, but she tears apart her bed and nothing can be found." Reaching up, her fingers clenched around her eyes. "She can't find it. She knows it's there, but she can't see." She reached for Jayne's hand, and to Simon's shock, the merc. crouched down and offered it to her. Before he had time to consider this, though, his sister continued her babbling, this time staring intently into Jayne's eyes. "She's flying or sinking, one or the other, or both. Up, down, around, back again. Secrets hiding in dark shadows in her mind lock her tongue behind her teeth and muffle all of her sounds, careful to guard all she feels and knows." Tears spilled down her cheeks and she began to shake. Her eyes flew from one point to the next, but, to Simon's wonderment, always returned back to Jayne. "waves crash against a ship, tossing her about. Drops fly and hit her skin. Some drops sting and others soothe, but she can't tell which is best. Wanders blindly through a field, many things to trip her. SOme do as they're supposed to and stay still, but others jump up to get in her way and try to knock her down." Simon turned to Jayne for help.

"I think I got the first part, but the rest, I don't understand." Jayne, unbeknownst to the doctor, had understood most of what the girl had said, nut to keep up his carefully constructed charade, he scratched the back of his neck and dumbly asked Simon to _clearify Crazy's princess talk._ As if expecting this response, the younger man nodded and began to explain, "she's referencing the ancient story of The Princess and the Pea from the Earth That Was."

At the the word, "pea," River launched herself out from under the table to hide amidst the chairs in the rest area. Her mutterings suddenly began to raise in volume until she was near shouting. Before Simon could react, Jayne had already moved to stand in front of River, holding both of her tiny wrists in his giant hands. From the outside, it looked like Jayne was trying to intimidate River. He had risen to his tallest height, squared his shoulders, and puffed out his chest. In reality, he had blocked most of the girl's field of vision, allowing her to focus on fewer things. He knew that by limiting the number of distractions, her mind would clear and she could say something that he could then work out and fix before anybody else even knew something was wrong.

"Hey, Crazy, if you don't speak yer problem out like a normal, happy little crazy person does, then I can't get to fixin' it," he growled, glaring into her eyes. She shook her head and Simon panicked.

"Jayne-" he began but was cut off by his sister.

"The pea. It's back. She had gotten rid of it, but it came back."

"River-" Simon started but was interrupted again, this time by the merc.

"What pea?" River's eyes met Jayne's as she tried to explain.

"It is hiding in her head, but it's not hers. She didn't ask for it, but it's there. It sits in her mind, it buries itself beneath layers and coils and makes her brain hurt." The big man's eyes widened, but before he had time to confirm his suspicions, Mal's shout of anger interrupted.

"What in the gorram hell is going on?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer:** **Unfortunately, I still own nothing. If I did own Firefly, I would be much, much richer.**

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 _Chapter 2_

" _What in the gorram hell is going on?"_

Jayne narrowed his eyes but stayed focused on River, "would you shut your gob for a second, Mal?" The girl before him shrank, feeling Mal's growing anger. "Crazy-" the merc. began but was yanked away by the furious captain. Simon rushed to his sister and began to check for injuries.

"Jayne, I thought we talked about this," Mal seethed. "You were to stay away from River. Do you want to go back in the airlock?" Jayne shook Mal of and pointed to River who had gone back to mumbling incoherently and shaking. Simon was frantically trying to figure out what was wrong.

"Lookit, Mal!" Jayne snarled. Mal blinked. The hired gun had never been this angry before. "She was tryin' to tell me what's wrong 'afore you came stompin' in an' yellin'." Wrapping a hand around his gun, Mal stepped closer to Jayne and looked up into the bigger man's furious eyes.

"It looks to me like you scared a little girl into having another one of her fits. She's been on the mend, you _boo hway-hun duh puo-foo!_ Hasn't had one of her fits in months until now." Jayne quivered with barely restrained anger.

"She's had plenty a' crazy fits!" He roared. The entire room froze. "You just didn't know about them!" Mal was the first to recover.

"How would _you_ know about her fits?" the captain asked, outraged at Jayne's words.

"Because she came to me for help in dealing with them," the merc growled, calming down now.

"What?" Simon gasped, his mouth gaping open. Jayne nodded.

"I got to knowin' how to make sense a' her crazy-talk after a while," he answered. "I would figure what she were tryin' to say an' fix it 'afore any of you even got to knowin' she had a problem." He turned to a startled Simon to say, somewhat accusingly, "she don't need no drugs. They make her confused an' cloud her head. Don't do nothin' 'bout th' crazy, just make it harder for her to figure which is real an' made up." The doctor's brow furrowed in confusion.

"I don't understand. She told me that the medications were helping."

"Yeah, well," the big man said, beginning to move slowly back toward River. "Seems to me that what she says an' what she means is two different things."

Mal snapped out of his shock and blocked Jayne's path.

"Now hold up here a second, I'm not lettin' you go near River," he said tensely. "Sweet story or not, you were lookin' mighty intimidating to the girl and I find I don't much appreciate that."

"Gorrammit, Mal!" Jayne roared again, his control over his temper hanging on by a thread. The enraged yell sent all of the crew not already there running to the kitchen to find out what the commotion was all about. "Something big is gonna happen an' she needs help makin' sense a' it 'afore it's too late!"

"And you're telling me that you're the one to do it?" Mal asked incredulously.

"Ain't no one on this ship better at understandin' her than me," he asserted.

"I say we give him a chance, Cap'n," Kaylee smiled, walking up to Mal and tugging on his sleeve to get him to stop glaring at Jayne. For once, the merc. was glad for Kaylee's sway on the captain. If she agreed with Jayne, it wouldn't be long before Mal gave in to the mechanic's will. Sure enough, Mal groaned and closed his eyes.

"Fine," he snapped, "but if you make one wrong move, I won't wait to take you to the airlock, if you get my meaning," he hissed with a glare Jayne didn't see. The merc. was already kneeling on the ground before River, pulling her focus back to him.

"Hey, Crazy," he growled softly, "look at me, ya hear? Just look at me." To everyone's shock, River's eyes met the big man's and her mumbling ceased. "Good girl. The pea you was talkin' 'bout," he began. River nodded.

"The pea that is hurting her brain."

"Yeah, that pea," he continued. "I need you to tell me if this pea is like the last one." She nodded again.

"The same, but different. Harder to find. Mosquitos biting and flying away."

"Do you need another picture to swat it?" He asked. This time she shook her head.

"She doesn't think so. The picture unlocked her brain. There are no more locks, only questions.

"What do you need to answer this question?" After considering this for a bit, she seemed to come to a conclusion.

"She must close her mind to linear and consult her mother."

"Do ya' want me ta' stay?" Smiling and patting his big hand, she shook her head again.

"No. If she needs rhythm, she will follow the red." With that, River jumped up and skipped from the room. Jayne slowly stood as the others stared ,gaping at the man they thought they had known. Wash, the first to recover, broke the silence that had befallen them.

"Well, that was just about the strangest thing I've ever seen," he said, "and that includes people juggling geese."


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I still own nothing, Joss is boss.**

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 _Chapter 3_

Mal snapped out of his silence next.

"I think I'm right in saying that we all could use an explanation right about now," he grumbled, too shocked to be truly angry. Jayne sighed and sat down into one of the chairs around the table and unzipped the bag containing his guns. He had tossed it haphazardly onto the floor when he had found River.

"I'm 'bout to tell a story ain't none of you's gonna believe," he growled. "I would much rather keep my trap shut and let yer emotions stay all nice an' level so that Crazy can think, but I can tell that yer not gonna let me help her 'til you hear it."

"Damn straight," Mal grunted, reclining in his chair at the table. Kaylee gave him a stern look before settling down next to Simon who sat across from Zoe and Wash. Inara busied herself with making some tea. She figured that this, whatever it was, may take a while to resolve. Jayne brought out a gun and began taking it apart as he spoke.

"After Miranda, I knew that Crazy and her brother were here t' stay. That don't mean I was ready t' be a big happy gorram family, though. She got better, but but she could be downright creepifying sometimes. I tried t' avoid her, sometimes I could manage two or three days without seein' th' kid. After a while of avoidin' someone, you get t' know their sounds, even when they're bein' silent."

All faces in the room were turned toward Jayne, eyeing him speculatively. "Some time passed an' we got used to each other. I would clean my guns an' she would sit in th' air vents an' talk." Having completed one gun, he moved on to the next. "At first, I jus' thought she were doin' more a' her crazy-talk an' didn't pay much mind. But, like I said, I got t' know her sounds. Th' more she set in th' vents while I cleaned my girls, th' more I came to knowin' what t'was she were sayin'. Sometimes she'd come to me actin' all fidgety, but after a while, I'd notice her goin' quite. I got curious, so's I peeked into th' vent an' there she was, sleepin' like a dead man." At this point, the merc. glanced around at hte other members of Serenity's crew. Simon was holding a hand up to his face wearing an expression reminiscent of the one in Canton. Kaylee looked confused and worried, but the big man thought he recognized a little glimmer of something in her eye that he wasn't quite sure he liked. "After a few more days a' that, I asked her why she'd been sleepin'. She told me that my brain has rhythm . I have control over my feelin's." He gazed at the people around him again while moving on to the next gun. "When she sleeps, she's more vulnerable. If someone nearby is feelin' somethin' a might too powerful-like, she she starts feelin' it too. Even if it's a good feelin', it gets mighty confusin'. It don't happen as much when she's awake, but sometimes it gets to be too much and she needs somethin' constant to tether herself to so's she don't fly away." The merc., noticing the strange looks he was getting from the rest of the crew, raised a hand to rub the back of his neck. "That's how Crazy put it, anyways," he amended.

Mal and Simon seemed willing to accept that excuse for the uncharacteristic lapse in Jayne-ness. All the women, however, appeared to understand that there was something more going on. Even Wash had a certain knowing glimmer in his eye.

Jayne cleared his throat and continued, "pretty soon we got to be kinda' friendly, 'nuff that she started talkin' to me, not just at me or around me. She told me stories," he hesitated before continuing. "She told me about the Miranda and The Academy." Jayne glanced at Simon who was being subtly comforted by Kaylee. The doctor looked pleadingly to the hired gun. Jayne shook his head and gruffly answered Simon's unspoken question, "you don't wanna know." The merc. hid his anger by placing his now clean guns back in their bag. "The things that they did to her, Doc, well, let's just say I ain't never had nightmares 'afore she tol' me about-" his eyes darted to Simon and then Mal before returning to his hands. Realizing that they were nearly black with grime, he stood to wash them.

Silence befell the crew of Serenity, the only sound the water running over Jayne's hands. Kaylee's eyes filled with tears imagining the horrors that the youngest member of the crew had experienced.

Suddenly Jayne's head snapped up and swiveled toward the door that River had previously exited through. He quickly wiped his hands on a cloth next to the sink. Inara made a quiet sound of irritation. The merc. glanced at the cloth and realized absently that he had thoroughly ruined one of the retired Companion's silk handkerchiefs. Raising his eyes back to the door, he muttered a distracted apology. Unseen by the merc, Inara's eyes flashed in surprise.

"Crazy?" Jayne grumbled non threateningly. The girl stepped gracefully into the kitchen. Jayne walked calmly toward her as she called to him.

"Big Bear, she is back," River smiled softly.

"You tethered again?" She nodded.

"Now she is tethered, she can dance, but she needed to find her rhythm." The merc grunted in agreement.

"I wanted a workout anyways." The two left and the people sitting at the table were once again shocked into silence.

"Am I crazy," Wash began, voice shaking, "or did Jayne just… apologize?"


End file.
